


c Reforesting China 



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Permanent Famine Prevention 



versus 
Famine Relief 



I\e foresting China 



Permanent Famine Prevention 

versus 

Famine Relief 



By JOHN H.REISNER 

University of Nanking, Nanking, China 



A STUDY 

under the auspices of the 

CHINA SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



International Headquarters : 
Thirteen Astor Place, New York City 

1921 



3D 4^ 
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Copyright 1921 by 
China Society of America 



Printed privately for Members of the Society 
SEP lb 1921 3CW622783 



Reforesting China 

Permanent Famine Prevention 
versus 
Famine Relief 



There is no substitute for forestry as a factor in 
the permanent prevention of famines in China. The 
reforestation of her millions of unwooded acres alone 
will not prevent famines but there can be no perma- 
nent prevention without it. 

China's forests are spent, her hills are denuded, an 
adequate supply of forest products is lacking. Modes 
of living have had to be adjusted. Her agriculture 
has been forced to assume responsibility for furnish- 
ing fuel to her population, in , addition to food and 
clothing, making impossible the replenishment of the 
supply of organic matter in the soil. Fertility and 
production have been lowered. 

The season's rainfall has been dissipated in riotous 
runoffs, causing ruinous floods. Stream beds on one 
hand are all but dried up, there being little or no 
supply of ground water to replenish them by slow 
regular seepage, while other streams are silted up, 
unable to carry off the load of soil that has been 
brought to them from the barren, unproductive hills. 
Destruction of life and property, and untold suffer- 
ing have resulted. "Beware of mountain water" read 
signs in many canyons in China, posted as a warning 



REFORESTING CHINA 



to travelers against the sudden rise of torrents during 
storms. Agriculture for many has become an all too 
hazardous occupation. 

The people are affected not only economically, their 
productive efficiency being lessened, but they have 
suffered physically, and socially as well, where her 
forests are gone. 

China Makes a Beginning in Reforestation. 

After centuries of neglect, China last year spent 
about a quarter of a million dollars in forestry work — 
planted about one thousand nurseries, reforested 
about one hundred thousand acres of otherwise use- 
less land and produced about one hundred million 
young trees. About one-quarter of her eighteen 
hundred districts have forest nurseries for the upkeep 
of which they are taxed. Several of the provinces 
have developed Provincial Forest Services. Arbor 
Day is increasing in popularity and its observance 
is being greatly extended each year. Forestry educa- 
tion is being rapidly developed, until there are now 
not only forestry schools but forestry is taught in 
many of the secondary, particularly the agricultural 
schools. 

These facts indicate clearly that China is making 
progress in her forestry development, that she is 
beginning to appreciate the need of reforestation and 
the relation of forests and forest products to her 
national life. 

America Helps. 

America's help in this notable Chinese development 
is not with money invested directly in forestry pro- 
jects, but through educational channels. The larger 



REFORESTING CHINA 



share of important forestry enterprises in China 
to-day, both practical and educational, is in the 
hands of men trained in the forestry schools of 
America, or of graduates of American-manned schools 
in China and the Philippines. There have been 
twenty-five graduates, and there are now over thirty 
students enrolled in the forestry course of the College 
of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of 
Nanking, an American missionary institution in 
China. 

There are Chinese forestry graduates of Yale, 
Harvard, Cornell, Syracuse and Michigan. Yale leads 
the number with more than a half dozen men includ- 
ing their 1921 graduates. Ngan Han, a Michigan 
graduate, for seven years has been identified with the 
most important forestry work of the Central Govern- 
ment and is now directing head of the forestry work 
of the Pekin-Hankow Railway. D. Y. Lin, a Yale 
man and China's premier forestry propagandist last 
year organized the Forestry Service for Shangtung 
Province and has just become director-in-chief of this 
work. 

China's Forestry Development Dependent Upon Chinese. 

The future of China's forestry development is very 
largely in the hands of these Chinese who have come 
under the influence, directly and indirectly, of Ameri- 
can foresters and the advance along forestry lines 
noted above is due chiefly to the activities of these 
young men. They have come to know the problems 
and significance of forestry to China and that the 
responsibility for adequate forestry developments is 
their own. 



REFORESTING CHINA 



American Famine Funds of 1913 Permanently Invested. 

The Forestry Fund Committee of Shanghai has 
been the financial sponsor for the education of the 
Chinese students sent to the Philippines and has pro- 
vided generously for the forestry work at Nanking, 
where in addition to paid scholarships they have pro- 
vided a revolving forestry scholarship loan fund of 
$5,000 and make an annual grant of $5,000, Chinese 
currency. An interesting fact about the Forestry 
Fund Committee is that it is administering left-over 
funds from the Hwai River famine relief of 1912-1913. 
These funds arrived in China too late to be used in 
relief work and it was decided by the relief commit- 
tee in charge to use the money to provide permanent 
relief. It was a wise decision and the plan is already 
bearing fruit through the work of competent young 
men in responsible forestry positions throughout 
China. The returns on this investment in permanent 
famine relief are increasing rapidly and will be of 
ever greater value and influence throughout the years. 



Forestry in China Is Developing From the Bottom Up. 

Forestry in China is not developing as it has in 
Western countries. In them the Central Government 
assumes a very large share of financial control and 
responsibility. In China it has been more largely by 
individuals, societies, or companies, districts and 
provinces. This condition may be expected to con- 
tinue even in the face of a marked activity on the 
part of the Central Government. Individuals, com- 
panies, and small political units in China will have 
from the outset a much more important place in 
reforestation projects than similar bodies have had 
in the West. 



REFORESTING CHINA 



Famine Prevention Includes Many Factors 

In addition to forestry, there are other important 
factors which must be recognized as essential to any 
comprehensive program of famine prevention, such as : 

1. River Conservancy. 

2. Development of transportation facilities. 

3. Underground water supply for irrigation pur- 

poses. 

4. Distribution of population through colonization. 

5. Industrial development. 

6. The development of granaries.* 

7. The establishment of rural credit and saving 

societies. 

8. Improvements in agriculture. 

Reforestation Gives Permancy to Relief Measures 

Watersheds must be reforested if wise conservancy 
is to be most effective. The water holding capacity of 
forests provides valuable control of surface runoff of 
rainfall. The development of coal mines to relieve 
the fuel shortage and the demands now made on her 
agriculture for fuel products need timber, which must 
be either imported at high cost or grown locally. 
Furthermore, until coal and wood fuel become cheaper 
than the fuel products of the farm the soil will not 
be relieved of its present additional burden, for 
millions of Chinese make their fires of the stalks and 



* China for many centuries had a system of granaries very 
similar to that organized by Joseph for the Egyptians. Accord- 
ing to the Honorable Alfred K. Sze, Chinese Minister to the 
United States, during the years of heavy harvest the excess 
food products were bought up by the Government and placed 
in the granaries until needed in years of short production. 
There were also communal granaries in charge of the village 
elders with or without official supervision, and charitable 
granaries maintained and operated purely by charity. 



REFORESTING CHINA 



roots of farm crops. In the construction of railroads 
and rolling stock and in their maintenance and repair 
forest products will be in great demand. The im- 
provement of her agriculture and the conditions of 
living of a large share of the agriculture population 
are, very directly dependent on an adequate produc- 
tion and supply of forest products. 

Popular Education in Reforestation Effective 
Economical 

While all these factors of famine prevention are 
important, reforestation must be considered basic and 
can be accomplished by the masses of the people 
through processes of education — and with a minimum 
outlay of money. It is evident also, that certain of 
the factors given can only be handled by Govern- 
ment, not merely because of their political character 
but because of the huge sums of money which will 
be involved. There are other factors, however, 
which can be made to function very largely and more 
directly through education, and it is such factors that 
would form a legitimate sphere of activities for 
American friendly interests. Forestry education par- 
ticularly is a project which will call forth the hearty 
co-operation of the Chinese, both officially and in- 
dividually, and at the same time be wholly free from 
political impediments. 

A Ten-Year Forestry Education Program 

Ten years of modest investment in reforestation 
would produce powerfully effective results for famine 
prevention. Such a program should be developed 
along these lines : 



REFORESTING CHINA 



1. Training of Foresters. — The training of leaders is 
the first step. A strong group should understand the 
principles and practices involved in the larger prob- 
lems of forestry in China. They will provide leader- 
ship for Chinese enterprises, — both educational and 
practical, — which shall at once be national, provincial, 
corporate and individual in their scope and interest. 
To provide such training, teachers are obviously re- 
quired who are capable of interpreting their own 
knowledge secured in one country or one part of the 
country in terms of the needs arising out of the 
conditions under which they find themselves in the 
new country with a fundamentally different forestry 
environment. Teaching should be confined to college 
grade and post-graduate work. Not only would such 
a forestry training attract many students of their own 
accord, but it should not be difficult to have students 
sent by the various provinces on government scholar- 
ships. 

2. Forestry Extension Work. — Such work should be 
emphasized. All the following projects can, and 
should be, carried out simultaneously : 

(A) Illustrated lectures with charts and demon- 
strations ; 

(B) Preparation and distribution of bulletins and 
circulars, both scientific and popular; 

(C) Newspaper propaganda. — (An immense 
amount of excellent publicity can be secured through 
the Chinese newspapers. This has been demon- 
strated) ; 

(D) Collection and distribution of tree seeds to 
schools and nurseries at cost ; 

(E) The development of school nursery clubs. — 
Thousands of schools could be enrolled, as they have 
been enrolled for school gardens in the United States. 



10 REFORESTING CHINA 



Such a development would have a marked effect on 
the extension of Arbor Day ; 

(F) Arbor Day which in many places is celebrated 
as a national holiday and is being more widely ob- 
served each year in China, should be furthered ; 

(G) Extension Forestry course — more particu- 
larly courses that would include demonstrations of 
nursery practices and actual tree planting operations 
— should be developed. Many of these extension 
projects could carry at least a good share of their 
expenses through co-operation with official agencies, 
particularly travelling expenses in connection with 
lecture tours in the various provinces. 

3. Investigation. — There are numerous investigations 
along the lines of Forest Botany, Wood Technology, 
Silvics, Silviculture, Forest Products and Utilization, 
Management, Forest Finances and the like which 
should be carried on. Our general knowledge of 
Chinese Forestry conditions must be reduced to more 
specific facts and much detail which can only be 
secured through careful scientifically-conducted in- 
vestigations. Much of such work can be carried on 
by teachers, but the services of outstanding forestry 
investigators should also be made available. 

Organization and Staff for Ten-Year Program. 

The organization of the proposed program should 
be under one administration, connected with an insti- 
tution which could offer much in the way of sup- 
plementary instruction in subjects such as botany, 
entomology, soils, etc., which are closely allied to 
technical forestry courses. Facilities should also be 
offered for teaching and investigation and in the de- 
velopment of extension work. 



REFORESTING CHINA 11 

China at Work 

To know what China is actually doing in reforest- 
ing her hills, will help to give us a better picture of 
what there is to do, and how the Chinese are going 
about to do it. The accounts of what Chinese gradu- 
ates of forestry schools under American administra- 
tion have done will indicate in what a very real way 
America is helping China. 

Local Officialdom at Work. 

The Kao-Yi district of Chihli province has its own 
nursery, with a budget of $1,080 which is raised 
from local tax on cotton. The second nursery of 
Shensi province, with three local nurseries under its 
direction, has a budget of $2,400, with a production 
of five million seedlings. This nursery has adopted 
the policy of giving free to anyone in their nursery 
area 50 trees and up to 5 lbs. of tree seeds. For 
larger amounts a slight charge is made. The Lin- 
Cheng district (Chihli) industrial deputy with his 
central nursery and four sub-stations, his budget of 
$1,350 raised from house and land taxes, and 3,000 
mow of land reforested to date, is planning to have 
every family plant five trees annually for each male 
member. The second Chekiang provincial nursery 
supplies free of cost over a million trees, to 16 dis- 
tricts in addition to schools, farmers and others, from 
its 190 mow nursery containing more than four 
million transplants and seedlings, on its budget of 
$2,934 raised from local taxes. Such instances as 
these can be duplicated many times. 

A Yale Forestry School Graduate at Work. 

Mr. D. L. Lin, one of the first Chinese graduates 
of the Yale Forestry School, after returning to China, 
carried on forestry propaganda (for several years) 



12 REFORESTING CHINA 



under the auspices of the International Committee of 
the Y. M. C. A. Then for three years he taught 
forestry in the College of Agriculture and Forestry 
of the University of Nanking. While at the Uni- 
versity Mr. Lin co-operated with the Governor of 
Shantung in organizing the Shantung Provincial 
Forestry Service, and later resigned to become Chief 
Forester of the Province. Work was prosecuted so 
vigorously that the first planting season saw the 
organization of three forestry stations, the establish- 
ment of three nurseries with plans for two more for 
the following season, over 550,000 trees planted on 
2,000 mow of land and an additional 3,000 mow of 
land seeded. The budget calls for about $22,000, 
payable through the Provincial Treasurer. 

A Philippine Forestry School Graduate at Work. 

The outstanding forestry development in China 
continues to be that of the first Kiangsu provincial 
forestry station started in 1916 and located near the 
famous Ming tombs at Nanking. Soong Ding-moo, a 
graduate of the Philippine School of Forestry with 
twenty-one assistants, two of whom are receiving 
their forestry education in the Philippines, is at the 
head of this work. His budget last year was $34,000, 
voted by the provincial assembly and paid wholly by 
the province through the Provincial Department of 
Finance. 34,000 mow of land (1 mow — Ve acre) have 
been replanted to date with two and one-half million 
of trees. Three nurseries were maintained, with an 
area of 371 mow carrying 1,275,000 transplants and 
about 3,000,000 seedlings divided among seventy- 
three different species. Trees and seeds for nurseries 
and over 50,000 trees for transplanting and for use 
in the observance of Arbor Day, were distributed to 



REFORESTING CHINA 13 



one hundred and eighty-six district officials, agricul- 
tural societies, and agricultural and forestry stations 
and companies or individuals. There are three sub- 
stations already located in important parts of the 
province, with two more stations being planned for. 
Sixteen students are also being given practical train- 
ing to fit them to go out into the province and de- 
velop the same kind of work that is being done at 
the Central Station. 



A University of Nanking Graduate at Work. 

Mr. Peng Ko-chung is Overseer of the forest plan- 
tations of the Lunghai Railway. His duties consist of 
supervising the head nurserymen, gardeners and 
workingmen, managing the central and four sub- 
nurseries, collecting herbian specimens, writing the 
regular reports, making all purchases of materials 
needed in the work of the nurseries. The Central 
Chengchow nursery occupies 900 mow of land. The 
total number of seed beds, including the four sub- 
nurseries, is 3,300, and contain more than three 
hundred species. Last year about one million seed- 
lings were produced. The expenditure on the 
nurseries is $10,000. 



China Is Not a Treeless Country 

China does have some forests, but only because 
they are largely inaccessible ; and there are trees 
everywhere, even in North China, though very 
scarce. As a whole, China is not a treeless country 
by any means. The influence of Buddhist priests 
has been very great in preserving small wooded areas 
and tree species which otherwise would have been 



14 REFORESTING CHINA 



done away with in the general destruction of the 
forests. Without the few trees in the villages and 
the evergreens about the graves of the ancestors, 
North China would be infinitely less inviting than 
it is. But the presence of a few trees only mitigates 
what would otherwise be a calamitous situation and 
the need of reforesting her millions of barren acres 
persists. 

Reforestation Is a Good Investment 

Looked at from almost any standpoint the reforest- 
ation of China's denuded areas would be a good in- 
vestment. If there were no other considerations it 
would be attractive as a financial investment. From 
a social standpoint there is probably no one thing 
that will have a greater effect on raising standards 
of living in North China particularly utilizing large 
areas of land suited to no purpose other than forestry, 
and providing employment to millions of people than 
an adequate and cheap supply of forest products. 
This will affect commerce and trade. With her for- 
ests renewed, China will be a better place to live in. 
No less important, reforestation will not only amelior- 
ate but will help permanently in the prevention of 
famines by relieving agriculture and indirectly effect- 
ing fertility and production of the soil, by supple- 
menting river conservancy measures, and influencing 
the surface runoff of rainfall, increasing the moisture 
capacity of the soil and greatly lessening the fre- 
quency and severity of floods and their consequences. 



REFORESTING CHINA 15 

Co-Operating in Reforesting China Provides Against 
the Necessity of Flood and Famine Relief 

Undoubtedly it was a good investment to bring 
relief to China during the recent famine. Would it 
not be an infinitely better investment, not particu- 
larly for what we could get out of it, but from the 
standpoint of the opportunities for friendly service 
to work together with China in the development of 
preventive measures against the too-oft recurring 
calamity of floods and famines which befall her? A 
very small investment on the part of America would 
add tremendously to the impetus which is now de- 
veloping in China toward meeting the needs and 
solving the problems of reforestation, as a chief 
means to permanent famine prevention and providing 
against the necessity of famine relief. 

The nation that helps China reforest her naked hills 
will be a friend indeed. 



Note. — This discussion refers more particularly to North 
China, where serious floods and famines have occurred most 
often. It does not refer to China as a whole though many 
statements so apply. — J. H. R. 



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